Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Gun advocate settles suit with Phila. for $25,000

A gun-rights advocate whom police stopped for openly carrying a weapon will settle his lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia for $25,000. Mark Fiorino's lawyer said the suit was not about money but about retraining police on open-carry laws.

A gun-rights advocate whom police stopped for openly carrying a weapon will settle his lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia for $25,000. Mark Fiorino's lawyer said the suit was not about money but about retraining police on open-carry laws.

Fiorino, 25, an information-technology worker from Lansdale, said he had been stopped three times for wearing a holstered gun on his hip. That's legal in Pennsylvania if the gun owner has a permit.

Fiorino recorded one profane police encounter and posted it online. His lawsuit alleged "vindictive prosecution."

Lawyer Benjamin Picker said Fiorino accepted the city's offer Thursday because the city had been retraining officers. The retraining was not a condition of the settlement, a city spokesman said. City Solicitor Shelley Smith, in an e-mailed message, said the city did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement. - Staff and wire reports